Classics for All: London and the South East
Speakers and Talks for the Online Day
4th July 2023
An online day of thought-provoking talks from lecturers from different universities.
Webinar details will be sent round nearer the time.
Once registration is closed we will also send round a form for parents/guardians to complete, giving consent for you to be part of the day. For our full safeguarding policy, parents/guardians can contact us directly: anna@classicsforall.org.uk.
9:30 – 9:45
The webinar will open at 9:30; at 9:40 there will be a brief introduction on the running of the day.
9:45 – 10:30 – Leicester University, Dr Dan Stewart: Text and Material Culture at Knossos
British Archaeologists have been exploring the site of Knossos on Crete for more than 100 years. Early excavations were informed by Homeric epic, Bronze Age myth, Greek and Roman historians, and the poetry of Ovid. This talk explores the relationship between text and archaeology at the labyrinthine palace of Knossos.
10:40 – 11:25 – Manchester University, Dr Jenny Bryan:'Is honesty always the best policy?'
Are there any circumstances in which leaders can be justified in lying to their people? Is it true that some lies are worth telling for the sake of protecting and maintaining a community? In Plato's influential work, The Republic, his central character Socrates suggests that there is such a thing as a 'Noble Lie', of the type that leaders are justified in telling people as a means of enhancing their political unity and, he suggests, their happiness. In this talk, we will consider why Socrates makes this suggestion and whether there is any truth at all in what he has to say.
11:30 – 12:15 – Warwick University, Dr Francesca Modini: The (Musical) World of the Greek Novel
The imperial Greek novel is one of the first surviving examples of ‘romance’: in a nutshell, a couple of lovers faces numerous challenges and adventures, before reaching their ‘happy ever after’. Set in a fictional classical world with Roman-time features, however, the surviving novels are much more than eventful love stories. Their narratives often take place in cosmopolitan settings, with diverse peoples and cultures meeting and clashing. They are also great texts to explore how the relationship between male and female genders was represented, and to question if male and female lovers had different roles and agency. In my talk, we shall explore both these aspects of racial diversity and gender balance through the prism of music, which often features in these texts; how music is performed, by whom and why will bring up fascinating questions about the imperial world beyond the fiction.
1:15 – 2:00 – Newcastle University, Dr Stephanie Holton: Decoding your Dreams: A Hippocratic Guide
What is a dream – and what is it for? This talk introduces one of the explanations offered by a 5th century BC Hippocratic physician: dreams are a purely internal form of communication between soul and body. We’ll explore the earliest surviving ‘dream-book’ from classical Greece, and discover how understanding the language of dreams can benefit both physical and mental wellbeing.
​2:05 – 2:50 – Exeter University, Professor Sharon Marshall: Rethinking disability through myth (or how Oedipus solved the riddle of the sphinx)
Over the past decade or so scholarship has radically reassessed the view of disability in the ancient world and, in so doing, has begun to challenge many of the modern tropes around disability that find their origins in the classical past. Taking as its central focus the figure of Oedipus, this talk will explore the ways in which classical mythology has shaped the history of disability and the role it can continue to play in challenging perceptions in the modern world.
2:55 – 3:40 – Birmingham University, Dr Jessica Lightfoot: Ancient Coins and their Uses
This talk will look at what we can discover about antiquity from numismatic evidence, why ancient coins are important, and how ancient coins were made and used in the ancient world.
3:40 – 3:45
There will be a very brief conclusion to the day; the webinar will end at 3:45.